The Science

The Undeniable Power of Subliminal Audio Messages

Subliminal audio as a self-development tool has been around for the best part of a hundred years, yet there are still those of us who are unfamiliar with the concept. In simple terms, subliminal audio refers to sounds played at a level we are unable to hear, but that our subconscious minds are able to perceive.

Study after study has shown conclusively that subliminal audio can produce measurable and lasting effects, from breaking bad habits to improving performance. One of the reasons this technology is so successful is that it is able to sneak new thought patterns direct into your impressionable subconscious mind, "under the radar" of your more logical conscious brain.

Why Does Subliminal Audio Work?

Your mind has a conscious element and a subconscious element. The conscious part, as the name implies, works when you are conscious and awake. The subconscious part, however, is always switched on, always soaking up sensations and information no matter what you are doing.

One way to understand it is to think of your mind as an iceberg. Your conscious mind is the bit of the iceberg you can see, say 10% of the total mass, while the rest is made up of your subconscious mind. That gives you a good idea about just how powerful your subconscious mind really is. It also explains why so many self-development enthusiasts look for ways to access its power.

The subconscious picks up information you are not always aware of and stores it in your mind. If it picks up enough information with enough frequency, that information will gradually become a part of who you are, giving you the potential to change the way you think and, by extension, the way you behave. As Dr. Joseph Murphy writes in his book The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, "change your thoughts, and you change your destiny [1]."

Making Changes for Good

This ability for information to sneak into your head makes subliminal audio useful in two powerful ways:

1. To break bad habits, such as smoking or overeating
2. To implant new, positive beliefs, such as self-confidence or motivation

Examples of people who have used subliminal audio messaging to achieve amazing results are everywhere. Tiger Woods reportedly used subliminal messages to help him become the world's greatest golfer [2]. Director Steven Spielberg found the confidence to follow his dreams and become one of the giants of contemporary cinema. Renowned life coach Tony Robbins has used subliminal audio technology to help celebrities and influential people all over the world achieve levels of success they could otherwise only have dreamed of.

Proof That Subliminal Audio Works

There are plenty of well-documented studies that prove the effectiveness of subliminal audio technology.

According to Professor Benjamin B. Wolman, author of more than 40 books on psychology, conscious thinking can be influenced by stimuli outside of awareness. He adds, with reference to Silverman (1967), that Freud's study of consciousness "assumes that a subliminal input raises the activation level of existing unconscious motives" [3].

In other words, subliminal messages can be used to spark yourself into action, depending on the kind of action you intend to pursue, such as getting more motivated, organized, confident, and so on.

Dr. Norman Dixon, a psychologist at University College London, has done extensive research on subliminal learning. In his scholarly work Preconscious Processing he cites 748 references to studies on the effects of subliminal communication, with over 80% showing positive results [4].

Dr. Eldon Taylor, director of Progressive Awareness Research and a Fellow in the American Psychotherapy Association, firmly believes that subliminal information when presented in an appropriate manner is processed, retained, and acted upon [5].

Further studies have focused on the potential of using subliminal audio messages to target a specific outcome, including:

Raising Academic Standards

A class of 60 law students was split in two, with one group exposed to subliminal stimuli and the other not. Students who received the stimuli scored noticeably higher than their peers at the end of the course and continued to outperform them for some 12 weeks later [6].

Weight Control

Two groups of overweight women took part in a weight loss course with one group being given subliminal audio messages and the other group not. The group that was exposed to the subliminal messages lost more weight, and subsequent follow-up showed the difference in weight between the two groups had continued to increase [7].

Stopping Smoking

Psychologist Dr. Lloyd H. Silverman of New York University studied over 40 groups of smokers. Half of each group were exposed to subliminal audio, and half were not. Within just one month, 66% of those in the subliminal group were still cigarette free compared to only 13% of the control group. This led Dr. Silverman to postulate that subliminal audio messaging makes it 4 times more likely you will be able to quit smoking [8].

Limitless Applications for Change

It should be obvious by now that subliminal audio messages are more than a fad, more than the latest craze dreamed up by self-help gurus to further their own careers. Time and time again scientific research has proven the effectiveness of subliminal audio to help people overcome real life issues, from eliminating fears to boosting their mental powers, from increasing confidence to decreasing stress.

These messages are intentionally designed to be too subtle for your conscious mind to pick up. Your subconscious, on the other hand, never misses a trick. It latches on to them, takes them at face value, and makes them part of your belief system. It does not try to filter out what you feed it. Feed it with enough positive stimuli, therefore, and it has no choice but to incorporate those stimuli into your very being. As Oprah Winfrey puts it, "what we dwell on is who we become."

And that's what makes subliminal audio messages such a powerful force for change.